Current Zunes are discontinued; Zune HD is it going forward

What of international availability?

It's been common knowledge for quite a while that many (most?) hard drive-based media players are on the way out, in favor of flash-based versions, but I mourn the passing. The larger capacity is something that I think consumers should be able to choose. That's why I chose the Zune 120. 32GB just isn't going to cut it, so now I can only hope that flash capacities will continue to grow and maybe in four years they'll have an HD variant with that much capacity. For the same reason, I wish the iPod Touch line had a larger capacity model like their iPod classics, which I can only assume will be discontinued soon.

Unfortunately it looks like Microsoft is conceding defeat to the Ipod. I was planning on buying my first zune when I get a new car late next year. Oh well.

Ocean - that is what you do when you are a follower... not an innovator.

@rr0de74 - This really makes me question wether they'll even have the zune service a year from now. I guess dumping products is one way to fix the lack of product intergration.

I dont think it matters one bit. MS is getting rid of a piece of hardware that everyone complained about for a piece of hardware that has received nothingbut wildly positive reviews. this is no indication that the Zune line is dying as including the Zune video store as the xbox video store shows how important the brand is to the company.

"a piece of hardware that has received nothingbut wildly positive reviews" How does MS translate those into *sales*? Can they?

"you say nothing of Apple continually making a mockery out of their own iPod shuffle" Having trouble staying on topic?

Here is why they dropped the others: "an appalling 54 per cent drop in sales of the music player." http://www.theregister.co.uk/2009/08/27/chris_stephenson_zune_exec_quits/

Hit as in great sales. Hit as in developers start cranking out the apps. Its doubtful but it could happen. If it does not, like I said STOP dumping money into it. The 360 does move games. The question is that division in the black yet? The RROD issues have cost them so much. I know the first Xbox was never in the black.

Microsoft no doubt has seen how things are trending in this space and is narrowing its focus onto a HW/SW platform that has the legs and the chops to deliver what people are most likely to want in a PMP/HH gaming device. It makes no sense to continue to try and compete in a market with devices that are becoming increasingly less desired by people in general. Finally, the power in the Tegra with its dual ARM cores (which makes Leo Laporte's comments that MS can't support ARM laughably wrong), will allow devs to do things that are simply not possible with less capable chips.

"the power in the Tegra with its dual ARM cores (which makes Leo Laporte's comments that MS can't support ARM laughably wrong), will allow devs to do things that are simply not possible with less capable chips." Seriously? Windows Mobile, nee Pocket PC OS has been working on ARM since the first 3 Pocket PC devices were on the market (HP Jornada, Casio E1xx, and Compaq IPAQ), and the Compaq IPAQ was the first Pocket PC device to carry a StrongARM SA-110 CPU when others were using MIPS and the SH3. XScale CPU's are even based on ARM instruction sets and they're still carried in devices to this day. Leo is an outright laugh sometimes. This is awesome: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cNu4CluFOcw

Actually thats a a pretty interesting question from Ocean. Can anyone tell me why they waited until after the iPod touch (and iPhone) were released to release a device like the Zune HD? Can I ask all you gadget geeks another question? Apple's iPod touch is now 2 years old. Microsoft's various Zunes have only sold (approx) a million a year. The market for PMPs has reached a plateaux. Zune's share of the market has hovered around the 2 to 4% mark. So my question is... If Apple DIDN'T CREATE the iPod touch.. and the Zune HD was launched 2 YEARS AGO..... how much market share would it have gained?

And Paul (and a couple of the blowhards here) are all over Apple for their limited choices and constant "abandonment" of older products. Nice move MS. Real nice.

Paul: any word on what this means for Canada where Zunes are currently sold? If they discontinue the old ones and don't ship the new hotness up here, what are we supposed to do?

Microsoft updated old Zune models not once but twice with software to give them the new features for free. With 1st Gen iPod Touch, people have now to forked over 20$ to Apple for the privilege of updating. Have iPod classics ever been upgraded to support the next year's software version ever? Yes they can still connect to iTunes and the older Zune players will still be able to connect to Zune 4.0. There's no way you can say that Microsoft isn't doing their damned-est to support people with older hardware. At this point they're taking the line in a new direction that the older hardware can't possibly support, you have to have a cut-off eventually. That being said, they haven't said anything about the Zune 4.0 software or any possible software for previous gen devices so let's just wait till that news comes out before passing judgement shall we?

Regardless of how good the new Zune HD is, it doesn't stand a chance against Apple for one very important reason. Apples greatest strength against Microsoft is the Apple store, the Zune has always been hobbled by the fact that its sold by retailers that have no real interest in highlighting the Zune over its competitors. walk into an Apple store to look at an iPod touch and you're in for a treat, its beautifully displayed, you can pick it up without some plastic tie rap around it that prevents you from really getting a feel for the product. Play with the ipod touch all you want, there are plenty on display, if you have any questions there's an Apple employee near by to answer questions or demonstrate the product for you. Better yet... Apple also has some Macs with iTunes installed so you can also try the software and see the selection of music, Video and apps available for "your" ipod touch. In contrast, whenever I go to Best Buy to look at a Zune it's tied with an ugly plastic tie wrap that prevents me from looking at the screen, that if it's even charged which I've found not to be the case many times. The Zune is leading an uphill battle and losing, it has excellent software and an ever expanding catalog of movies, but the real sales are in a touch screen video oriented device which Zune hasn't had until now. But atmosphere and presentation are half the battle, and Apple has this Major advantage over Microsoft .

"And Paul (and a couple of the blowhards here) are all over Apple for their limited choices and constant "abandonment" of older products." I don't care if the Zune is discontinued, I already have one. Also, I only needed to buy it once, a concept lost on Apple users... You guys getting ready to buy your 90th ipod when they come out? LOL. Gotta love how Apple keeps adding features to the new ipods though, like new price tags, and making iTunes the size of Windows Vista.

SPiotr: "So my question is... If Apple DIDN'T CREATE the iPod touch.. and the Zune HD was launched 2 YEARS AGO..... how much market share would it have gained?" I'd guess the Zune HD would do pretty decently in that scenario. If Apple had no comparable device; no touch screen, no WiFi, no web browser*, no Apps, then Microsoft would have, quite possibly had a big winner on their hands. MS would have done even better to get something like the Zune HD out before the iPhone. Even if there was no phone attached, people were yelling for a widescreen, touch device. Apple gave it to them with the release of the iPhone, and then a few months later with the iPod Touch (for those that didn't want or need the phone) all while MS was farting around with the Zune. We all know what happened though, and now Zune HD looks simply looks like another "me too" device. *Zune HD Web Browser: I have yet to see a demo of this. I mean, I've watched a slew of videos "showing off" the "awesome features" of the new Zune and while they go on and on and on about the video capabilities and the OLED touch screen, every time the topic of the web comes up all you get is "Yeah, it'll have a browser". Since this thing is being launched soon, MS better hurry up and show us what all the hub-bub is about next to decent video and a touch screen. Just sayin'.

Tayme, Snow Leopard vs Zune? Identical situation? Really? Operating system vs media player? Of course! Its that simple. I hope all the 'neutral' parties are enjoying failed analogies and low IQ.

@Ocean That is the bug question - can MS turn the talk into sales ... we shall see.

@hamiltonstallings - First of all, I said a *nearly* identical situation. But, due to your possibly low reading comprenhension skills and in order to help you to understand, let me break it down. a) Apple updates Snow Leopard and creates a situation where some older Macs and even some recent Macs cannot take advantage of some of the features. b) Microsoft updates the Zune, and possibly (we will know for sure, eventually) creates a situation where some oder Zunes and even some recent Zunes cannot take advantage of some of the features. Do you see the similarities now? I won't speak to your lame attempt to make me feel "stupid" by making a comment regarding my IQ. As Waethorn said, "You actually have no clue about that, so that is complete conjecture." --tayme

@shark - "It still works." You are exactly right...But as mikegalos pointed out as recently as this morning, "Yes, and so did any working 25 year old Macs. And any 32 year old Apple ][s that are still running are... still running. As are my 25 year old IBM PC/AT running Windows 1.04 and my 24 year old Mac + that I keep in the corner as a reminder of where we've been. I didn't say they were broken. I said they were abandonware." -tayme

"Identical situation? Really? Operating system vs media player?" Not at all, because the media player in question costs more than the operating system in question.

mikegalos - If Microsoft does not allow the older Zunes to use *all* of the new features of Zune OS, are they then considered abandonware? If not, why is that different than Apple not making *all* features of Snow Leopard available to the older Macs, as you stated in another thread? In this thread - http://community.winsupersite.com/blogs/paul/archive/2009/08/31/snow-leo... - you said, "40% of Macs still in use can't run Snow Leopard at all because they believed Apple's "PowerPC is the future" and now have abandonware. That's 14M abandoned computers." You went on to discuss the numbers that cannot use every new feature of Snow Leopard. I think that it is highly possible that 100% of the older Zunes will not be able to run the new Zune OS at all because they believed Microsoft's "Zune social and squirting songs is the future" Time will tell if that means somewhere between 2 and 8 million abandoned Zunes. If you'd like, we can wait until its officially announced one way or the other to get your answer...I am good with that. My family owns and loves our 3 Zunes, especially the Zune Pass. I will be happy as long as I can continue to use the Zune Pass on our 2-30GB and 1-80GB Zunes. I am guessing that the owners of the 40% that you mention above still get great usage out of their PPC based Macs...I know that I do with that as well. --tayme